World Snooker Championship 2012 - Carter thrashes ill Davis

World no.17 and former Crucible finalist Ali Carter got his Betfred.com World Snooker Championship 2012 campaign off to a great start beating an ill Mark Davis 10-2. Neil Robertson also got his 2nd round match against Dave Gilbert off to a good start, he leads 5-3 overnight.

Former Crucible finalist Ali Carter saw his Betfred.com World Snooker Championship campaign at the Crucible get off to a fantastic start today as he eased past an ill Mark Davis 10-2 to set up an exciting clash with last year's finalist Judd Trump.

Unfortunately though for Davis he admitted feeling ill since Tuesday and he couldn't get any rhythm going in the first session against Carter on Wednesday as apart from making breaks of 20 and 28 to steal the third frame he looked particularly flat and his opponent from Chelmsford made top runs of 65, 71, 101 and 76 to go 8-1 up overnight.

When they resumed their best-of-19 encounter on Thursday morning Davis managed to take the 11th frame on the colours after Carter won the previous frame. But in the end it was too late for former six-reds world champion Davis as his opponent made a fantastic 132 clearance to win the match 10-2.

Mark Davis

Davis admitted after the match to feeling flat since Tuesday ”I haven't been feeling good the last couple days and last night I felt a bit rough to be honest.”

“I lost the match last night. My illness was affecting me so badly that at times I struggled to even see the balls. Take nothing away from Ali though, he played well and made some great breaks in both sessions.”

Carter had been struggling for consistency this season, still struggling with the effects of Chrohn's disease. But since changing his diet in recent months and cutting out wheat his game has improved immensly, as can be seen with his run to the quarter-finals in the China Open.

Ali Carter

'I'm pleased with my performance out there.' said Carter. 'It was easy to see that Mark wasn't feeling his best but the way I played is probably the best I have done all season.'

'I've practiced harder for this tournament than any other this season because I felt better, cutting out dairy and wheat from my diet has helped no ends. After three weeks i'm starting to feel better every day.'

When asked what he thought about his secound round tie with Trump 'I'm under no pressure, nobody expects me to do anything and I don't expect to do anything so so we will see how it goes.'

Meanwhile on the other side of the screen Tamworth qualifier David Gilvert got off to a great start going 3-1 up on Neil Robertson in the first second round match of the tournament. When they resumed after the mid-session interval however it was Robertson who felt the more comfortable of the two, possibly due to the Crucible dividing wall being lifted.

The Australian won four frames in a row that featured top breaks of 106, 57 and 131 to ensure that he would have a lead going in to the next session of their best-of-25 last 16 match.